LOMBARD TOWNS OF ITALY.* IN accepting Goethe's well-known words, "Each
one sees what he carries in his heart," Mr. Egerton Williams explains them in his own way. "A traveller," he says, "is one building a fair house in the mind; but he must have a stout framework of knowledge, before be can lay on the shingles of obseavation." Some people, however, and these not the least wol.thy of the privilege of Italian travel, may be satisfied to fill their minds with impressions of art and beauty, with suggestions of the tragedy and gaiety of the past, such as they are capable of receiving—and this was, perhaps, more probably what Goethe meant—and then to specialize the historical and artistic knowledge which every cultivated person is supposed to possess. The system of starting equipped with full information as to each city, church, or palace to be visited may make almost too great a claim on the memory of fhe traveller who is not also a student.
If Mr. Egerton Williams had felt himself, for instance, to be an infallible authority on every detail of the city of Cremona, her Renaissance palaces and her marvellous Cathedral, he could net have described it all with more enjoyment to himself and his readers. It is this very lightness of touch, this absence of pedantry, well equipped as he is for his task, which makes his books on Italy such agreeable reading. We are inclined to think that Lombard Towns is even more attrac- tive than the former volumes, dealing with the towns of hill and plain. Perhaps this may be because of a fairly general impression that Lombardy is, on the whole, the least interesting part of Italy ; that it lacks the beauty, the charm, and the romance to be found farther south in such overwhelming measure. This is a case, however, in which comparison seems foolish, and even impossible. Mr. Egerton Williams will find some among his readers who will need no convincing that the Lombard cities yield little or nothing in beauty and interest, in magnificent art and splendid history, to the cities of the southern provinces ; and to those who are still doubtful, he gives good reasons why there can be, to quote another accom- plished►American writer, no first, second, or third rank among the several parts of "that Enchanted Land, whose beauty is inexhaustible, and whose boundless interests touch, and will always touch, men and women who perceive the deepest concerns of the human soul."
• Lombard Tote= of Italy; or, The Cities of Ancient Lombardy. By Egenton R. Williams, jun. With Illustrations. London; Smith, Elder, and Co. 6d. beta
The city of Milan is not included in this volume, just as Venice was left out of the cities of the plain: the reason for which is clear when we realize how full an account the author gives of ancient seats of glory like Bergamo, Monza, Pavia, Lodi, Cremona, and Mantua, as well as of smaller places whose distinction is chiefly derived from the work of some great artist, such as Saronno and Legnano, the shrines of Luini, Castiglione Olona, that of Masolino, and others hallowed by art or history, too many to mention in the space of a. short review.
The book is charming and most readable. One or two little slips, " nadir" for " zenith " on p. 1, and " Lady Montague" on p. 25, will no doubt be set right in the new edition that is pretty sure to be called for.
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